Myanmar Town Torched in Sectarian Violence

By

Shibani Mahtani in Singapore and

Myo Myo in Yangon

Updated May 29, 2013 12:51 p.m. ET

Gangs on motorbikes staged hit-and-run attacks in Muslim neighborhoods Wednesday in a second day of sectarian violence in the most important town in northeastern Myanmar, residents said, the latest eruption in a worsening climate of clashes between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims.

Clashes between Myanmar's majority Buddhists and minority Muslims spread to the country's northeast. The WSJ 's Shibani Mahtani discusses the extent of the violence and fears about security for the coming World Economic Forum.

Two days of violence in Lashio have affected two Muslims boarding schools, many of whose students are orphans, a mosque and Muslim-owned residences and businesses, said residents and Muslim community leaders. Some of the motorcycle attackers seemed to be from outside the city, they said.

According to a post on the official Facebook page of Myanmar's Ministry of Home Affairs, one person was killed Wednesday, the first report of a death in the Lashio clashes, with another four injured. Authorities said dozens of homes, Muslim shops, vehicles and all three religious schools there were destroyed, but that the situation was under control.

Almost two dozen shops were set ablaze, along with a hotel owned by a Muslim man, said Ko Ko Latt, head of the All Myanmar Muslim Organization, in Yangon, who called on the security forces to take stronger action to stop the violence.

A curfew has been in effect in Lashio since Tuesday after a quarrel between a Muslim man and a Buddhist woman ended with the woman being doused with petrol and burned. Rumors quickly spread through the city that she had been killed, prompting attacks on Muslim sites throughout the town.

ENLARGE

In this photo released by Daily Eleven Media, people watch a burning mosque in Lashio, Myanmar on Tuesday.
Associated Press

Maung Maung, the advocate general of Shan State, said that the woman survived and was hospitalized with minor injuries. He said that her attacker was a Muslim from a different town and had been taken into custody. Muslim activists disputed that the attacker was a Muslim. The suspect was unavailable for comment and it was unknown if he had legal representation.

Central government officials have offered little comment on the Lashio violence, which follows sectarian attacks in other parts of the country in the past year. Muslims account for 4% of Myanmar's 60 million people.

Ye Htut, spokesperson for President Thein Sein, on his official Facebook page, said that religious riots were "inappropriate for a democratic society" and would be dealt with "according to the law".

"Muslim people who live near the burnt buildings and shops are moving to other places," San Zar Ni Aung, a Muslim resident of Lashio, said by telephone. "They don't dare live in these areas."

Residents in the town said some Muslims were choosing to stay with their families in other areas of Shan State. Muslims are a small part of Lashio's ethnically diverse community—approximately 3,000 in the city of 130,000—with most living in downtown areas, according to Mr. Ko Ko Latt.

It was first time sectarian violence in Myanmar has crept so close to the border with China. Lashio lies about 100 miles from the border town of Ruili in Yunnan province and is a key point for trade between the two countries.

It is also close to a $2.5 billion oil-and-gas pipeline from the Bay of Bengal that will soon carry crucial energy supplies from Myanmar to its northern neighbor. Activist groups and representatives of an ethnic autonomy movement said that there was no word that the pipeline, which lies some 40 miles from town, had been affected by the violence.

Myanmar has grappled with sectarian violence since ending decades of military dictatorship and embarking on a series of changes to bring greater democratic freedoms.

The government has faced criticism by human-rights groups over the treatment of minority Muslims, particularly in southwestern Rakhine state, where more than 100,000 Muslims from the Rohingya ethnic group have been driven from their homes. Thousands of others have tried to flee the country in boats.

Mr. Thein Sein's administration has promised to take firm action against those seeking to cause religious and ethnic instability.

The increasing frequency of sectarian violence has added a new risk for companies and foreigners operating in the emerging market and is proving to be the president's biggest challenge in opening the country to investors. The country will host the East Asia meetings of the World Economic Forum next week, seen as a symbolic meeting of government and private-sector players rewarding the country for its economic and political changes.

—Celine Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Singapore contributed to this article.

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